Sense of Belonging to Specific Communities and Depressive Symptoms Among Australian Gay Men

Sense of belonging to the general and broader gay communities has been shown to be beneficial for gay men’s mental health. This research investigated the interrelations between sense of belonging to three forms of gay community (the broader gay community, gay groups, and gay friends), sense of belonging to the general community, and depressive symptoms by examining a path model. A community sample of 177 gay men, aged 18 to 79 years, completed the Sense of Belonging Instrument–Psychological subscale, the Centre for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale, and the Sense of Belonging within Gay Communities Scale. The model provided excellent fit to the data in which sense of belonging to the general community mediated the relationships between a sense of belonging to gay groups and with gay friends and depressive symptoms. Results imply that enhancing gay men’s sense of belonging to gay groups and with gay friends is likely to be associated with fewer depressive symptoms, by virtue of their enhanced sense of belonging to the general community.     

Use of Environmental Tobacco Smoke Constituents as Markers for Exposure

The 16-City Study analyzed for gas-phase environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) constituents (nicotine, 3-ethenyl pyridine [3-EP], and myosmine) and for particulate-phase constituents (respirable particulate matter [RSP], ultraviolet-absorbing particulate matter [UVPM], fluorescing particulate matter [FPM], scopoletin, and solanesol). In this second of three articles, we discuss the merits of each constituent as a marker for ETS and report pair-wise comparisons of the markers. Neither nicotine nor UVPM were good predictors for RSP. However, nicotine and UVPM were good qualitative predictors of each other. Nicotine was correlated with other gas-phase constituents. Comparisons between UVPM and other particulate-phase constituents were performed. Its relation with FPM was excellent, with UVPM approximately 1 1/2 times FPM. The correlation between UVPM and solanesol was good, but the relationship between the two was not linear. The relation between UVPM and scopoletin was not good, largely because of noise in the scopoletin measures around its limit of detection. We considered the relation between nicotine and saliva cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine. The two were highly correlated on the group level. That is, for each cell (smoking home and work, smoking home but nonsmoking work, and so forth), there was high correlation between average cotinine and 24-hour time-weighted average (TWA) nicotine concentrations. However, on the individual level, the correlations, although significant, were not biologically meaningful. A consideration of cotinine and nicotine or 3-EP on a subset of the study whose only exposure to ETS was exclusively at work or exclusively at home showed that home exposure was a more important source of ETS than work exposure.     

A statistician's perspective on biomarkers in drug development

Biomarkers play an increasingly important role in many aspects of pharmaceutical discovery and development, including personalized medicine and the assessment of safety data, with heavy reliance being placed on their delivery. Statisticians have a fundamental role to play in ensuring that biomarkers and the data they generate are used appropriately and to address relevant objectives such as the estimation of biological effects or the forecast of outcomes so that claims of predictivity or surrogacy are only made based upon sound scientific arguments. This includes ensuring that studies are designed to answer specific and pertinent questions, that the analyses performed account for all levels and sources of variability and that the conclusions drawn are robust in the presence of multiplicity and confounding factors, especially as many biomarkers are multidimensional or may be an indirect measure of the clinical outcome. In all of these areas, as in any area of drug development, statistical best practice incorporating both scientific rigor and a practical understanding of the situation should be followed. This article is intended as an introduction for statisticians embarking upon biomarker-based work and discusses these issues from a practising statistician's perspective with reference to examples.     

Gender trouble in the workplace: applying Judith Butler’s theory of performativity to news organizations

Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, introduced in her 1990 book Gender Trouble, has significantly shaped individual and collective understandings of gender. This essay examines performativity as a framework for critically assessing gender performances in patriarchal workplace environments, including the institutional rules and norms that shape behaviors and interactions. Specifically, we suggest that performativity offers a valuable lens for critiquing women’s experiences in newsrooms, spaces where expectations for gender can significantly shape professional experiences and success. We provide an overview and evaluation of the development and existing applications of Butler’s performativity theory, including its use in organizational contexts. We also propose methodological and topical approaches through which performativity can be used to study newsrooms and the experiences of female journalists in particular.     

大众文化:粉丝、盗猎者、游牧民——德塞都的大众文化审美

德塞都将积极的阅读形容为"盗猎",并指出这种"盗猎"是一种"挪用"而不是"误读"。在此基础上,德塞都还为我们提供了另外一个关于粉丝文化的重要洞见:读者不单单是"盗猎者",他们还是"游牧民",总是在移动,不断向其他文本挺进,挪用新的材料,制造新的意义。德塞都的"盗猎"模式强调了意义制造的过程和大众阐释的流动性。德塞都的模式对文本意义的性质保持了一种不可知论的态度,使得各种竞争的和矛盾的阐释也都具有效力。德塞都的理论并不一定拒绝作者意义或学术阐释策略的价值,因为它们也提供了它们自己的愉悦和回报,这是不容忽视的。源自德塞都的解读模式只是将这些阐释性的目标和策略纳入了一系列更广泛的、在通俗文本中制造意义和寻求愉悦的方法,其中所有的解读方法都或多或少地同样值得接受。德塞都的文本盗猎和游牧解读的概念对思考媒介消费和粉丝文化特别有帮助。     

Fast two-stage estimator for clustered count data with overdispersion

Clustered count data are commonly analysed by the generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Here, the correlation due to clustering and some overdispersion is captured by the inclusion of cluster-specific normally distributed random effects. Often, the model does not capture the variability completely. Therefore, the GLMM can be extended by including a set of gamma random effects. Routinely, the GLMM is fitted by maximizing the marginal likelihood. However, this process is computationally intensive. Although feasible with medium to large data, it can be too time-consuming or computationally intractable with very large data. Therefore, a fast two-stage estimator for correlated, overdispersed count data is proposed. It is rooted in the split-sample methodology. Based on a simulation study, it shows good statistical properties. Furthermore, it is computationally much faster than the full maximum likelihood estimator. The approach is illustrated using a large dataset belonging to a network of Belgian general practices.     

Rural versus urban residence as an influence on grandparent caregivers’ needs for service

The present study explored the impact of rural (n = 26) versus urban (n = 49) environments on perceived needs for services among grandparent caregivers, wherein persons participated in focus groups targeting their needs and concerns and/or completed a mailed survey. While findings suggested substantial similarity across rural and urban persons in unmet needs, areas of difficulty, and service barriers, rural grandparents who reported their health to be fair or poor reported the greatest unmet needs and experienced the widest array of problem areas, while the opposite was true for urban grandparent caregivers. With few exceptions, sociodemographic factors failed to predict unmet needs, array of problem areas, and barriers. The practice and policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Lifelong Learning: A Dyadic Ecological Perspective

This paper examines lifelong learning in differentiating it from formal education, and emphasizes multiple theoretical perspectives in doing so. The theoretically based approaches emphasized here include contextualism and the multi-layered nature of the environment, the dialectics of interactions among students and instructors, the zone of proximal development, and person-environment fit. Examining lifelong learning from these perspectives deepens our understanding of such learners and has implications for future research examining lifelong learning, as well as for the design and implementation of interventions designed to foster positive intergenerational relationships.